The Past's Edge
by secretramblings
Summary: Draco wants to forget her, Hermione wants to get back at him.


Hermione groaned as her alarm blared AKA her wand vibrated and chimed loudly on her nightstand. It was yet another early Wednesday, and she had to be in at her office at the Ministry in exactly 15 minutes. _Fuck_ was the only thought she had as she struggled to get up and rubbed her eye before running to the bathroom to begin her quick routine.

Exactly 20 minutes later Hermione burst out of the 5th floor elevator of the Ministry and practically ran past her boss to get to her desk, accidentally knocking over a large stack of papers onto the ground with her bag. Mr. Bumbleton walked over as she tried to settle in as best as she could, a cup of cold coffee still perched dangerously close to her right hand that was currently signing some document or other.

"Eh hrm, Ms. Granger?" Hermione looked up with such a sad and dejected look that all her old boss could say before walking away was that she should perhaps not stay so late every single night.

 _Well if I ever want to get out of this hellhole I NEED to get all this shit done in time!_ Frustrated thoughts ran through her head as she pondered for the millionth time this month on _why_ exactly she was working so hard.

She had graduated from Hogwarts after coming back for an extra year after the wars end. Despite doing less than spectacularly as she usually did, Hermione had no trouble having a long line of people wanting to employ her after graduating. She had easily gotten a position as an Auror at the Ministry and had spent some time there working as hard as she could.

But, tragedy striked when her parents had somehow gotten entangled with the remains of the Death Eaters and had fleed their house with only the clothes on their backs. Hermione had dutifully returned to the Muggle world to help them heal and attempt to re-create some semblance of a normal life for them.

By the time her parents were as well as they could be under the circumstances, Hermione had turned 25 and been away from the Wizarding world for enough time that when she got back she no longer had her job, nor any peeep from anyone wanting to employ her. Luckily with a bit of brown-nosing, she had managed to secure at least this job to eventually work her way up. The Minister himself had said that if she worked hard and there were openings higher up, he would do his best to get her in. So she'd been working this job for the past year and was utterly and despicably sick and tired of it.

She was sick and tired of the dull and dingy atmosphere of the office, coworkers who could care even less than she about signing papers and reading documents, and just completely over the dull and pressing need to just get _out_ somewhere, and do something.

As her hand mechanically signed paper after paper, Hermione thought about her future, and what she wanted for it. Truth be told, after all the craziness at Hogwarts and the war, she was ultimately ready to just find a guy and settle down once and for all. She wasn't sure about the whole marriage and children bit, but at the very least it would be nice to have some company after her long days at work.

The only catch was that there _was_ no man in her life. After a short stint with Ron in their last year at Hogwarts, there had only been a few short relationships, and that had been it for some time now. Ron had gone on to become a professional Quidditch player and had recently gotten married to the love of his life. Harry on the other hand had managed to find himself travelling the world as a capturer of dark wizards who still roamed the planet, an Auror. With his hectic schedule and busy lifestyle he hadn't settled down yet, last Hermione heard he'd been seeing another women.

What Hermione needed in her life was _excitement_. No, not the kind of excitement she'd had at her time at Hogwarts, full of not knowing whether she'd be dead by the next school year. No, she needed some sort of exciting relationship to get her going. True, it was easy enough for her to go to a bar or a club, or even a single's event and get a guy. But that was the thing, it was _too_ easy to just get a guy, and regret it the next morning There didn't seem to be any challenge at all, with most wizards knowing of her past and wanting to be with her.

 _Ah fuck it, might as well head to the club tonight and get fucking sloshed, nothing better to do I suppose!_

Making up her mind to at least have a fun Friday night out, the day flew by in a blur. It was finally 5pm and as Hermione packed away her bags to leave, a young man stopped by her desk, presumably leaving at the same time. "Oh hey Filip," Hermione greeted the man with a quick smile as she held her bag and made her way around her desk. "Hey Hermion! Got any plans for tonight?" Filip was yet another eager man with a crush on her, but she knew that it just wouldn't work. While he was a bit cute, he was just _too_ easy. If she bothered going on a date with him, it would probably end up with both of them shagging and her regretting it in the morning and leaving him without a word. Of course they worked together, so that kind of drama was out of the question.

Filip followed as she made her way to the elevators, "Oh just going to read a book and have an early night, gotta be up early tomorrow for an appointment." The lie easily slipped through her mouth as the lift arrived and they stepped in. His face fell a bit, but quickly picked up. "Hey how about I take you out for a quick night-cap? Won't take long at all!"

They arrived on the first floor in just a few seconds and he followed her out to the floo where she turned to look at him. "Not tonight Filip, maybe next week?" With the promise of a future date, his face lit up before they exchanged their goodnights and Hermione floo'd home.

 _Right, dinner, look hot, and get the fuck out of this place._

With the promise of alcohol and dancing, Hermione made quick work of eating some leftovers for dinner before standing in front of her small closet. Besides her work robes and casual robes, she preferred to wear Muggle clothes. For clubbing though, it seemed that even witches preferred the scandalous things that muggle women wore.

"Let's see, short skirt? Leather pants?" Speaking outloud, she started throwing a few things on her bed, trying to decide upon a sexy outfit. Ultimately a short black body-con skirt paired with a red halter with a plunging neck-line won out. After a few moments spent showering and doing her hair and makeup, she threw on her clothes along with some high-heels magicked to stay comfortable all night, and grabbed a small bag enchanted to be bottomless (this was for her outside robe and wand).

"All set!" She quickly poured herself a quick drink as it was much cheaper to get slightly sloshed at home before heading out to get even _more_ sloshed with expensive drinks. Then again she could expect to be treated by at least a few guys.

Taking a quick look in the mirror, Hermione was pleased to see a sexily dressed young women staring back at her, one who looked ready to get thoroughly fucked (in more ways than one). Grabbing her things and stepping into the floo, she yelled 'Lorencio!'

Her senses were immediately filled with blaring music and the sound of yelling. Stepping out of the floo point, Hermione was greeted by a bouncer who let her in after a quick glance.

Lorencio was one of wizarding London's hottest nightclub's, and a place she had started frequenting a year or so ago. It was a great place to go to when she wanted to forget everything. And right now, that was the ticket. But first she had to get another drink in her.

Siddling up to the bar and taking a seat on a rare empty stool, Hermione waited to catch the bartender's attention. She looked around at her barmates as she sat. On her left was a young man in deep conversation with the women sitting next to him, and on the right was

"DRACO?!"

The blond man abruptly turned to look at her as he had just been looking in the opposite direction. It took him a second to recognize the face under makeup, tamed hair and dark lights.

"Granger?" He squinted in shock at this unlikely meeting, his forehead creasing deeply.

Being the first one to get over the shock, Hermione spoke. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"Same thing that _you're_ doing here!"

Hermione had honestly mostly forgotten about the youngest Malfoy at this point. After the war he'd presumably returned to the Malfoy Manor and laid low for some time, and by the time she'd gotten back from the Muggle war he'd been able to move on from his family's reputation and had continued his father's various businesses. Now he occasionally appeared in the newspapers after acquiring some more property or some such.

Not knowing what to really say to that, Hermione decided upon a neutral path of conversation.

"So how have things been?" It was slightly awkward acting like they were _only_ former classmates, considering their actual past, but now that they were further out into the future it only seemed like the right thing to say.

"How have things _been_? Don't talk to me you stupid mudblood!" With a grimace Draco got up and disappeared into the crowd.

 _What the fuck? That little...ferret!_

Now Hermione had come out with the sole purpose of being _happy_ , and of course a Malfoy shaped wrench had been thrown into her plan.

 _Seriously? He thinks he can just call me a mudblood? STILL?_

It almost seemed absurd to her that he had stooped to calling her _that_ word after all they had both been through. From what she could remember, he hadn't been caught (yet) working with anymore death eaters or had any dark dealings, so she surmised it was probably deep-seated prejudice that forced him to say such a thing to her so many years later.

But still, Hermione was royally pissed off. No one, _no one_ talked to Hermione Jean Granger like that.

Draco had been at the club for about half an hour and had finished up his second drink when he heard a loud "DRACO?!" coming from the left side of his seat. At first glance he saw a hot women done up and wearing a low cut shirt that exposed a very large amount of cleavage. On second glance he realized that the cleavage belonged to none other than "Granger?" A few moments and a _mudblood_ later Draco was weaving through the crowd, blood angerly coursing through his veins.

After he was on the opposite side of the club he stopped to take a deep breath and calm himself down. Well _that_ had been a huge surprise. He hadn't thought about the mudblood in years and years it felt like. After the war he'd had his own shit to deal with, and her and the other 2 had slipt his mind completely. So seeing someone like Granger out of the blue in such a setting was quite strange to say the least.

Despite coming out of the war with mostly a ruined reputation, the wizarding world has accepted the remains of his family back with open arms, on the condition they would never have dark dealings again. They had agreed of course, but prejudice ran many many generations deep and would take at least another few to completely remove.

Granger was a mudblood, and would always be a mudblood. A type of person that he couldn't and wouldn't have any dealings with.

Draco's family business was going okay as far as these things go. They could be doing better of course, but currently he had other things on his mind. Things such as attempting to woo a girl and settling down.

But of course like Granger, his good looks made it far too easy to attract most women, and after his fill he would realize that they just wouldn't do, and so the cycle would continue.

 _Whatever, fuck that bitch._

After calming himself down Draco managed to ease his way back into the gyrating crowd, hoping to salvage something out of his evening. He'd come alone as usual and enjoyed pressing himself against whatever witch happened to be closest and perhaps take her home at the end of the night.


End file.
